Snapshots
by manicmethod
Summary: Max kept in contact with Chloe for those five years. It made all the difference. A series of snapshots capturing the moments in which two best friends fall further in love.
1. Old Six String

_**Originally uploaded to AO3 under the username "OneJumpFromEden" on the 1st-Dec-2015, intended as a month-long collection of oneshots, one per day. Reposted here due to popular demand. Thus, I will simple be copying the chapter note from there, and not all of them will necessarily makes sense in retrospect.**_

 **Just to clarify, this is an AU where during her five years in Seattle, Max and Chloe kept in touch. As a result of having Max's constant support, Chloe's more rebellious self was slightly curbed, therefore never leading to the events in the bathroom where she was shot. Max has no powers (or hasn't discovered them given that Chloe didn't die), and Chloe and Rachel never got as close as they were in canon. Will be part of a collection. Feedback is very much appreciated.**

* * *

There's something to be said for the calm of October.

Sure Chloe's worried about that Rachel Amber chick. They hung out a lot while Max was in Seattle, along with that Frank guy, but apart from Chloe and the looming "Everyday Heroes" deadline, Max had no pressing concerns.

The slightly tinted golden light filtering through the leaves cast her room in a warm glow. Chloe was sprawled across Max's bed, flipping through the photo albums she's compiled while still living in Seattle, and occasionally quizzing Max about one she found particularly interesting. She'd asked why there were none of the famous "Space Needle," to which Max had only replied with a grunt and a head-nod in the direction of the wall to her right, where the picture of herself and her dad was pinned.

Why Chloe had insisted on coming over to bother Max (though Chloe could never really bother Max, the mousey-haired girl positively relished the blonde's presence after a five-year absence) while she was doing nothing more interesting than studying the names and achievements of a group of long-dead photographers, Max wouldn't know. Maybe it was nothing more than the fact that Chloe had missed Max just as much as she'd missed Chloe, even just being in the same room as each other was more than enough.

"When'd you start playing guitar?" Chloe piped up, pointing to the album. Max spun in her chair to look at the photograph. She remembered that one, the shot of her tuning it the day she'd bought it. Max hadn't taken the picture herself, her mom had snapped it when she'd stepped into the room, but Max liked it anyway, so she stuck it in the book.

"A few months after I moved. I was having trouble making friends so I signed up for music classes," she said, standing and walking over to join Chloe on the bed, her slight weight pressing down on the mattress causing it to dip. The limited space meant Max's arm brushed against Chloe's side, as she leaned over to look at the photo closer. Neither spoke, but both enjoyed even the slight contact. Chloe turned to meet Max's eyes.

"So in keeping with the whole doe-eyed hipster waif image, you've only learned how to play one song. Enough to impress the ladies, no doubt," she teased, winking. Max scoffed.

"Totally. Everybody digs the lost-looking twig girl and her fantastic guitar skills," she shrugged, "it did work though. I made friends. My guitar's over there," she nodded to the decrepit-looking old acoustic leaning against the couch. The body was frayed and dirtied around the edges, and it really was in need of a re-string. But it was her baby, and she dared not think of replacing it. "And fyi, I can play at least two songs."

It was Chloe's turn to scoff.

"Alright then Superstar Max, prove it," she taunted, rolling onto her back and tucking her arms behind her head, photo album forgotten, "seduce me, or whatever it is you do to unsuspecting young girls."

Max smiled and rose to grab it. Chloe practically deflated when Max did not return to the bed, rather, chose to sit on the loveseat and play. As the first notes rang out, Chloe found herself initially confused as to how something so smooth and relaxing could be produced by Maxine Caulfield. Awkward, jerky, wonderfully dorky Max Caulfield.

Her second thought was that this song was actually pretty amazing, and decided never again to make fun of Max's musical and general artistic prowess.

Her third thought was that maybe Max seducing numerous girls and boys was a slightly less ridiculous concept now.


	2. Vinyl

_There's something special about the vintage feel of a vinyl record._

 **See part one for the whole shebang. Nobody commented on the first one, and that's fine, I guess, but comments really are encouraging. Just tell me what you thought, let me know if I'm going in the right direction. I'm thinking I might post one of these every day for December. Prompts (preferably only a few words I can take where I choose) are very much appreciated.**

* * *

Chloe never had been the most avid reader, and, if the current state of her room was anything to go by, that hadn't changed in the past five years. Still, she had no trouble accompanying Max on an obligatory trip to the bookstore. After devouring the contents of "The Red October", Max had felt compelled to immediately go out and purchase every published work of Bradbury's.

Of course, Arcadia Bay was a small enough town, and there was a limited variety of books, so even after stopping by the town's largest three bookstores, she'd only come up with 3. Not that Chloe minded, as she was the one being forced to tote them around the stores while Max browsed. She couldn't grumble about it though, Max had promised to accompany her to the music store when she was done with books, and then treat her to coffee.

Once bagged and paid for, the two made their way to Grant's Records, Chloe's usual haunt, a short trip down the sidewalk from the last bookstore. It was run by an ex-rocker with a surprisingly mellow taste in music, and Chloe owed much of her current music taste to him and the soft sounds of lo-fi acoustic trickling from the speakers around the store.

The maroon paint of the door was cracked and peeling, leaving flakes on Chloe's hand as she pushed the door open and held it for Max. The bell above the door chimed again as it shut, and Max immediately gravitated toward the charts wall, figuring it was the safest bet. Chloe smirked and followed her, grabbing the shorter girl lightly by the shoulders.

"Oh no you don't Max Attack, I've got something special to show you," the blonde whispered, low enough for only Max to hear. She moved her hand to her lower back and guided her toward the back wall of the store, where an area was sectioned-off by a heavy black cotton curtain. Max shot her a questioning look, brow raised, "just trust me," Chloe assured her, removing the hand from Max's back and pulling the drape aside.

Behind the curtain was a room filled with boxes of vinyl records.

"It's Grant's personal collection. Most of the older ones aren't for sale, unless you wanna fork over a few hundred bucks. He just lets his regulars back here, have a listen to 'em," she said, nodding toward the old stereo set up against the far wall, "I'm not going to make you listen to The Beatles right now," Chloe said, flicking through the nearest box as Max wandered over to one further away.

"How about this?" Max called over Chloe's furious shifting, pulling out a sleeve.

"Iron & Wine? You listen to him?"

Max shrugged.

"I've heard a few of his songs."

"Pop her in if you want then. The record player over there's fairly modern, it's all automatic," Chloe told her, returning her attention to the box in front of her. Three songs into the current record, Chloe gave up on her search.

"Guess he must've sold it," she sighed, and took a moment to listen to the muted plucking of strings from the speakers. Grinning as she began to become absorbed in the song, she walked toward Max who had been standing by the stereo, awkwardly, as Max does. Chloe took Max's hand and started swaying, urging Max to step with her. The photographer smiled up at Chloe, and followed her steps, albeit more subdued than Chloe at first.

They continued to sway as the last chords rang out, stepping closer so that their legs were brushing with each step, close enough to feel the warmth from each other. Close enough to kiss, Chloe felt it thought buzzing way back in the deep recesses of her mind. But that's where she left it.

For now.

* * *

 **If you're curious, the song I imagined was "Cinder & Smoke", the third track on its record. It was by no means the actual song, and there's no need for you to listen, I have a thing against forcing my own music tastes on my readers. However if you enjoyed the Life is Strange soundtrack as much as I did, I'd recommend him. I'll try keep these at a minimum from now so as not to break the flow from one shot to another.**


	3. Extra Bacon

_Who says there's no such thing as infinite bacon?_

 **This one's not quite so long as the other two, but still somewhat stupidly fluffy. Thanks again to "GrumpyCat42" and "cat" for your feedback. Even the smallest bit can be very encouraging. Enjoy.**

* * *

Apart from Chloe, the one thing Max had missed most was breakfast at Two Whales. Chloe worked there now, saving up bit by bit so that one day, the two of them could fulfill their childhood dream of escaping sleepy Arcadia Bay together. It sounded almost romantic, but Max dismissed the thought. She and Chloe weren't like that. They weren't falling into that idiotic best-friends-fall-in-love trope.

Even so, Max couldn't deny she enjoyed watching Chloe flit from one table to another, almost like a hummingbird, or a butterfly. With surprising grace and flourish, she'd wipe down one table, and turn without missing a beat to take an order or refill a coffee. It was interesting, but if Max was being honest, nothing really unexpected, at least on her part. She knew beneath Chloe's somewhat stoic and blunt exterior lay a heart of gold. She was glad the rest of the world was getting a glimpse of that, even if it was just the Two Whales' regulars.

With an easy smile, Chloe emptied the current pot of coffee into a trucker's mug before gliding behind the counter to deposit it and grab a fresh pot. Spying Max across the diner watching her, she smirked and made her way over.

"You know, you may want to order some actual food soon, we stop serving breakfast in like 30 minutes," she informed Max as she poured her another coffee. Max shrugged in response.

"Is your mom cooking this morning?"

"Yup. I'm on floor duty, so Joyce is manning the kitchen. So, bacon and eggs?" she guessed.

"You know me so well."

"I would hope so. Nice to know some things don't change," Chloe teased, turning to make her way back to behind the counter to call for Max's order. While she waited, Max debated pulling out her camera and snapping a picture of Chloe at work. Maybe it was weird, but Chloe wasn't what one would call camera-shy. Silently and slowly, so as not to draw attention to herself, Max slipped her beloved Polaroid camera out of her bag, and directed the lens at Chloe.

The sound of the shutter clicking alerted Chloe and she turned to frown at Max somewhat accusingly.

"Max Power, I'm on duty, I can't pose for you right now," she chastised. Max rolled her eyes, smiling slightly as she plucked the developing photograph from her camera and shook it lightly to dry it out.

"There's like three people here right now, humor me."

"Whatever you want," she said, bringing Max's plate over to her, "one bacon and eggs with extra bacon for Maxine Caulfield," she chimed, depositing the plate in front of Max, who only frowned up at her.

"No amount of extra bacon to going to give you a free pass for calling me Maxine. Say it again and prepare yourself for an emoji war," she threatened, but digging into her food anyway. Chloe smirked and leaned close to Max's ear.

"Whatever you say," she whispered, pausing with a mischievous grin, "Maxine."

Max didn't reply as Chloe flew off to deal with other patrons, only chewed harder in (faked) anger as she whipped her phone out and pulled up her conversation history with Chloe. If it's a fight she wants…

* * *

 **Forgot to mention, my tumblr is prisoner-319. Sometimes I'll post little fics there and not here for different fandoms and stuff. I'm also probably a little more responsive there than here.**


	4. Rumor Has It

_The gossip mill at Blackwell is always turning_

* * *

"That Jefferson dude is hella creepy if you ask me," Chloe stated, flopping back on to the haphazard mess she called a "bed", exhaling loudly as her back hit the mattress. Max was quick to join her, exhausted after a long day at school, she lowered herself down beside Chloe, jostling the taller girl slightly. Once she's stopped shifting around for a comfortable position leaning with the back against the wall, Chloe rolled over onto her stomach and threw an arm across Max's legs.

"I think he's…okay. He's still kind of new to teaching, so maybe he just hasn't quite got it yet," she said, reaching for the hand Chloe had flung across her body, toying with her fingers in her own hand. It was only just five in the afternoon, but the sun was already setting. The low sunset shone through the window bathing the room in orange. Chloe's stereo played softly in the background, the fairy lights overhead cast their multi-coloured glow against her walls. It was relaxing, and just what Max needed. Jefferson was putting on the pressure for her entry into the "Everyday Heroes" contest, and unless she stepped on it, her already slightly-below-average GPA could slip too low for her to keep her Blackwell scholarship.

But she pushed that to the back of her mind. For now, there was just her, Chloe, fairy lights and music. The only thing beyond this room was the setting sun and the bird song. Max closed her eyes and relaxed fully for the first time since she'd woken up that day. Chloe hummed as Max wrapped her hand in her own, and turned her head toward the brunette.

"I also don't get why like all your classmates have the hots for him. Even…Rachel. There were these rumors that he and Rachel had sex. Honestly I wouldn't put it past either of them. Not to talk shit about Rach behind her back or anything but…" she trailed off, voice slightly muffled from her face pressed into a pillow.

"I get you. I think Victoria mentioned something about that to me, and she's more than happy to bitch about people behind their backs," Max admitted and Chloe hummed again in agreement.

"21st century Barbie bitch would talk shit to anyone who'd listen. Even you, it seems. But I wonder what she says about you and me?"

Max shrugged one shoulder halfheartedly.

"I couldn't really care less. I've been called out for my Polaroid, my selfies, being friends with Kate and Warren, being friends with you, my generic-brand jeans…the list goes on. I could sit in my room all day never leaving, not bothering anyone, and only going to class and still be called out for it. If I cared what Victoria thought, I wouldn't be very happy."

"True," Chloe mused, "heard anything about me?"

Max scoffed.

"Said you're a weird, bitchy freak with only two friends: a slut and a dazed hipster wannabe," Max sighed, "she also said your truck was an ancient piece of crap."

Chloe's grip on Max's hand tightened at that.

"Okay, I don't care how much money she has, nobody insults my baby."

"The truck or me?"

Chloe smiled teasingly.

"Max we all know you're a hopeless hipster dork. I was talking about the truck, obviously," she said, moving to place her head on Max's lap. The dork in question removed her hand from Chloe's and instead went to brush them through her hair. Chloe sighed, content, as she drifted off into a light doze.

Max followed soon after, as her hand threaded lightly through Chloe's messy hair. Slowing down, her last thought before finally falling into the grasp of sleep was that this, here with Chloe, it was definitely something she could get used to.

* * *

 **Again, very few comments, thanks again to GrumpyCat42, and hopefully I was able to clear up your confusion. Guys, even a simple "well done that was great" "or I liked x but not x" would help. I'm averaging around every tenth viewer leaves a kudos, so I know SOME of you like it. Let me know please. Have a nice day ^^**


	5. Just Like Kids

_Sometimes it's nice to go on the kind of adventure they used to as kids._

* * *

On what was quite possibly the last warm day of the year, Chloe announced they were going down to the beach.

"'The Dread Pirates of Arrrrcadia Bay' ride again!" the blonde declared, rolling the 'r' in the stereotypical pirate fashion and she clambered on top of a boulder and stood, legs firmly apart and hands on hip, chest jutting out. Max quickly snapped a picture, the sun highlighting the flyaway strands of Chloe's blonde hair, illuminating them.

"You look more like Wonder Woman up there," Max informed her, shaking the photograph dry before tucking it and the camera back into her bag. Chloe just shrugged, and hopped down from the rock, stumbling slightly in the sand as she landed. Straightening up, she slung an arm across Max's shoulder and pulled her close into her side.

"We haven't been down here together in over five years Mad Max, let me have my moment," she huffed, leading Max down the length of the beach, stooping occasionally to pick up some debris of particular interest ("Chloe that could have been literally anywhere." "Yeah hella cool right?"). They took the most indirect route possible down the beach, over rocks, through reeds, at one point Chloe almost dragged them into the surf, before Max gently reminded her of their attire. By the time they reached their old usual spot, by the bench, where the lighthouse cliff loomed above them, Chloe had gathered quite the collection of driftwood, shells and assorted junk, including an old tire she'd kicked up the beach ahead of them for the previous five minutes.

"Alright," she said, dumping her collection into the centre of the tire, "this is our stash. We've gotta bury it."

"Okay, I'll go along with this. Do you have a shovel?" Max questioned, strolling up to her, digging in her bag to find her camera and snap a picture of Chloe's "treasure".

"Uhm…no," the blonde admitted, "but what I do have is two hands and a whole lot of nothing else to do. I've also got my first mate, Mad Max, scourge of the seven seas to help me out."

Max laughed at Chloe's antics and stooped until she was level with Chloe who was already on her knees attempting to dig a sizeable enough hole for all the junk she'd gathered. Stowing her camera back in her bag for safety, Max slid it off her shoulders and laid it to the side, before plunging her hands into the cold, slightly damp sand, cringing at first against the temperature and the foreign feeling, before picking up on Chloe's zeal for the task.

They dug in silence for a while, not really getting very far as the sand they dug out simply slid back in. Chloe attempted to fix this by flinging the sand behind her, but the breeze coming in off the bay caused it to fly back, directly into Max's face. The shorter girl spluttered and blinked against the sand, wiping a hand across her nose to knock it off.

"Hey Captain Chloe, quit it already, you're getting sand in my face," she groaned, her other hand coming to try wipe it out of the corners of her eyes. Her finger was already there before she realised that adding an already sand-covered hand would be the opposite of helping, and so she sighed in resignation before slumping back onto her hunkers. Chloe chuckled quietly at the other girl's struggle, before slipping off her over shirt and letting Max wipe her face down with it. Once she was finished, however, Max was reluctant to return to work on their hole-digging, and so she left Chloe to her own devices and wandered off by herself for a while.

By the time she'd finished her own solitary stroll, Chloe had, somehow, miraculously, managed to make a hole large enough to stick in the random bits of wood, rope, a plastic bottle, the leg of a child's doll, and a handful of assorted colourful seashells and pebbles in. Once she was done, Max assisted her in refilling the hole, and Chloe topped the whole thing off by drawing an "X" on the now patted-smooth sand with a flourish.

"X marks the spot," she joked, smiling radiantly at Max, "just like when we were kids right?"

"Yeah," she agreed, slightly breathless as her heart skipped a beat.

Maybe not exactly like when they were kids.

* * *

 **Thanks to Oripoke, GrumpyCat42, ChaChaChelsea and YASSSS PRICEFEILD for your feedback last chapter, you guys rock. Next chapter may see a slight departure from the Max-and-Chloe-seem-to-be-the-only-existing-characters-in-this-AU so stay tuned.**


	6. Monkey Bar Riot of '02

_The story of how Max and Chloe first met is truly an epic tale._

* * *

Kate Marsh, wonderful, kind, and caring Kate Marsh, the last person in the world who deserved a hard time, was having a hard time.

Much more than the standard run-of-the-mill teasing she got over being some "prudish Jesus freak", this whole video thing seemed to be a sort of gateway into all-out bullying.

And Max was having none of it.

So she'd dragged a somewhat reluctant Kate out of the Blackwell dorms for the weekend, if for no other reason than to escape the accusing sneers of Victoria and her lackeys. Max had decided to forgo a day out shopping as A) that really seemed like belittling Kate's possible depression, B) neither of the girls particularly enjoyed shopping for anything other than books and photography equipment anyway and C) Chloe had a double shift at Two Whales that day and Max knew if she made her eyes wide enough she could probably treat Kate for free, and if the hug around until near closing time, Joyce might give them the left over goodies.

So that's where they were, sitting in Max and Chloe's usual booth, their initials, "MC + CP 2005" still scratched into the laminate table-top from all those years ago. Max absently traced the tag in question, following the line of the slightly wonky heart shape. There wasn't anything inherently romantic about it, not at that age, a love heart was just something everybody scribbled into the margins of their notebooks. Kate sat opposite her, avoiding eye contact by gazing steadily down into the coffee mug wrapped in her hands, tea now almost cold.

The slight motion of Max's index finger over the table caught Kate's eye, and she looked up and smiled slightly when she read it.

"You two have been friends for a really long time huh?" Kate said tentatively. Max was caught a little off guard at Kate's voice popping up. She was almost tempted to divert the subject, this outing had of course originally been to talk through Kate's feelings. But this was the first conversation Kate had attempted to start all day, and so Max went along with it.

"Uhm, yeah. Since elementary school," she answered, and internally scolded herself at Kate's somewhat disappointed expression at the brevity of her answer, and expanded, "Chloe was in second grade and I was in first. A bunch of…third grade boys, I think, maybe fourth, were trying to, I don't know, commercialise the monkey bars? They demanded lower grades sneak some of their lunch out to give to them and they'd let you on. It went on for about a week or two and nobody said anything to the teachers, or they didn't really care I guess. But anyway a bunch of kids were getting fed up of it, Chloe included, so I guess there was a kind of combined effort from everyone being extorted and a mob of like, twenty second graders tried to chuck the older kids out. There was this huge brawl, and one kid climbed onto the top of the monkey bars, yelling about "freedom to play", take a wild guess as to who that was," Max grinned at Kate, who was now leaning in, fully enraptured in Max's story. Kate smiled slightly back, before guessing:

"Chloe?"

"Chloe," Max confirmed, "of course she had to be the center of attention," she teased, eyes briefly flicking over to the blonde in question, currently doing a round of coffee refills among the diners, before returning to her story, "so our resident genius inspires the mass of revolting eight-year-olds and leads them to victory. That's what she'll tell you anyway. What actually happened was the teachers on duty came over to calm it all down, and Chloe fell off the monkey bars. She fell and whacked her head pretty hard. The teachers couldn't get to her through the big pile of kids, but luckily she fell right next to yours truly."

"And you swept down to save her?" Kate asked, slightly teasing. Taking it as a good sign, Max continued.

"Well no I mean this girl I'd never spoken to before went and split her head open right in front of me. I freaked out. And I mean FREAKED. My screaming helped the teachers figure out where she was and help her, and before the teachers dragged me away from her she cracked her eyes open enough to look at me and said "that's really nice you could be a professional," before she passed out," Max chuckled now at the memory, and Kate leaned back in her seat, digesting the information.

"…A professional what, exactly?" Kate asked, a confused brow raising, and Max only shrugged in response.

"Neither of us have quite been able to figure it out. I had no idea what she was talking about, and her own memories of that day are fuzzy at best. She remembers seeing me screaming, and saying that, but she doesn't remember why. I mean she DID hit her head pretty hard. Still has the scar and everything. Anyway, I felt kind of bad afterwards for basically screaming at this possibly-dying girl's face, and begged my parents to take me to visit her in hospital. We've been best friends ever since-"

"And we will be, forever. You're stuck with me Maximus," Chloe interjected, sliding up to their table with a fresh pot of coffee in one hand, and a new mug of tea in the other. Passing the tea off to a bemused Kate, Chloe topped Max up before poking her to scoot over and joining them in the booth. The blonde swiped Max's now full mug and took a gulp, seemingly immune to the scalding heat.

"Forever hm? Sounds great Max," Kate said, sincerely, shooting Max a loaded look, "you know, some people call that marriage."

Chloe only just managed to avert a spit take of boiling-hot coffee onto the unsuspecting Kate Marsh.

* * *

 **Longer than usual, here we see the first major appearance of not Pricefield. Fun fact: the story of them meeting was only supposed to be like one paragraph. Since it's so different from previous installments, I'd really appreciate your feed back on this. Also thank you to whomever commented last chapter, I still haven't gotten around to replying but I will!**


	7. You Liked Me Because I Was Blue

_Your eyes are blue too._

* * *

The leaves have finally all fallen off the trees, leaving the bare, gnarled branches jutting into the crisp fall air. If Max sat down and made a list of all the things she loved about October, that'd be near the top of the list, the piles of leaves gathered around, still too far from winter to turn into a slushy mess, crunching if one walked on them. Though if she made a list for this particular October, she was pretty sure spending copious amounts of time with Chloe again would be her number one.

It was a fairly cool day. Cool enough for Max to swap out her thin jacket for one of Chloe's thicker flannel over-shirts. There wasn't any particular reason as to why she'd decided on wearing Chloe's shirt, not at all. It certainly wasn't because it smelled of some parts cigarette and hemp smoke and the cologne William used to wear but Chloe had taken to wearing in his stead, refusing to let it go. It smelled some parts something Max couldn't quite figure out, but it was very distinctly Chloe. It wasn't that the smell and the warmth came together in such a way that it was like constantly being wrapped in her. No not at all. It was a cold day and the shirt was thick and warm. Simple as.

Still, it's not as if the smell and familiarity wasn't comforting. Maybe it was weird and obsessive, but after five years away from the other girl, Max really didn't care. If Chloe had a problem with it, (which she didn't seem to, she was leaning her back against the very same tree trunk as Max, sharing her space) Chloe would tell her. When Max had made her way out into the quad to meet the taller girl, Chloe had only said "nice shirt", before leading Max to the tree they were currently seated at.

She'd brought take-out cups of coffee from Two Whales, which were long since emptied. A stray breeze off the bay threatened to carry them off, but Chloe whipped off the beanie hiding her hair and dumped it on top of them to weigh the cups down. Now free of their constraints, tendrils of her hair whipped around in the wind, occasionally brushing against Max's cheek. When Chloe reached up to try and bat it down again, Max stopped her hand and pinched the hair in question, looking at it intently.

"I think you should dye it blue," she mused, toying with the hair.

"Blue?"

"Yeah. Like the sky. Or blue jays."

"The baseball team?"

"No, not the baseball team, smartass," Max scolded, digging the blonde with her elbow lightly. "Blue like…your eyes. It is your colour," she mumbled, shrugging slightly. Chloe just laughed at the younger's poorly disguised embarrassment.

"Blue," she mused, gently reclaiming the captive hair from Max's hands to study herself. "Your eyes are blue too, Max."

* * *

 **Anyone who's spent any amount of time, y'know, listening to music recently, probably knows that the title is shamelessly nicked from Halsey's "Colors". It's one of my favourite songs by her, but it actually doesn't really fit with the playlist I've made for writing Pricefield. Any time I write a new fic, I have to compile a playlist to help me set the mood for whatever I'm trying to get with that fic. For general Pricefield, it's mostly chill indie acoustic, I've included a lot of the game's soundtrack in it (if anyone's curious I can send the list to you). Anyway that little insight into my work process got a bit out of hand. Thanks for letting me know what you think of the story so far guys. Come back tomorrow for more nerds who totally-aren't-in-love-no-way-josé.**


	8. The Mysterious Disappearance of Rachel A

_Max wasn't jealous of Rachel, no sir._

* * *

So Chloe had a crush on Rachel Amber, so what? From what Max could figure, just about everyone who'd had a 10-minute conversation with Rachel Amber did too. So it was nothing special, Rachel must have been just one of those people, and Max couldn't care less. No way.

So why was Chloe's insistence on finding out what happened to her grating on Max so much?

From what Max had heard of Rachel Amber, she was exactly the kind of person who might have up and left town one day without a backwards glance. Everyone knew who Rachel was, but very few people knew Rachel Amber as a person. Even Chloe had only scratched the surface, it seemed, because after snooping around Frank's trailer a bit one day after he dropped his keys on the way into Two Whales, it became evident that Chloe didn't know Rachel quite as well as she thought.

Chloe was mad, for a little while, but her friendship with Rachel hadn't been near the level of her relationship with Max, so after a bit of pacing, cussing and huffing, the blue-nette eventually calmed down enough to consider the evidence in front of them. She insisted on confronting Frank about the whole affair, who seemed just as surprised to see Chloe as Pompidou had the day they slipped into his trailer, given that she hadn't bought any weed off him almost since Rachel had vanished.

He'd only stuttered out something about it being none of Chloe's business, before disappearing back into his trailer and yelling at them to leave him alone.

Whatever the full extent of the nature of Frank and Rachel's relationship, Max tried to get Chloe to focus on what they had in front of them. They'd snuck into Frank's on a hunch more so than anything else, and were left with a logbook filled with names of dog breeds, presumably code for his buyers, and no way to figure out who was who. They figured Kate had probably been drugged, and that the buyers were probably in the Vortex club, given that anyone in Blackwell on a scholarship probably didn't have enough disposable income to go around drugging innocent girls at parties.

It was a Friday night, and so Chloe, still obsessing over finding out the truth, stayed up late trying to string together some theory or another, while Max dozed on her bed. Well, she tried to doze, but thoughts of Chloe and Rachel, Rachel and Chloe kept her awake. She wasn't even sure why. Back while she was in Seattle, between letters and Facebook messaging and skype calls, Max had never even gotten the feeling that she was being replaced or anything. She had never been jealous of Rachel. Max and Chloe were bff's and that's how it would always be.

No this nagging feeling only arose when she learned Chloe liked Rachel as more than a friend.

Max wanted to pretend she didn't know why it bothered her so much.

Truth was, she was afraid of the reason ever coming to light.

* * *

 **First of all, apologies for the delay, my internet cut off yesterday about an hour before I had the shot completed, and so I couldn't upload it. I'm in college currently, leeching their wi-fi. Hopefully this won't happen again. Just so you know, while I was originally happy to meander through this story without any real objective, the only requirement being that Pricefield happen eventually, I thought it's make more sense if I at least addressed the canonical plot, seeing as it's still technically part of my AU, if you get me? So this serves as driving it forward a bit, and letting you know where the girls actually stand. Remember, Chloe was never drugged at Nathan's party, as she never went, so they're still kind of guessing as to who the perpetrator is.**

 **I'll post today's snapshot later tonight, just to leave some gap between them.**

 **As a final note, I try to avoid reading other people's works while I write my own, afraid that their style might influence me to write in a ttally different style, or that I may subconsciously copy them, but I must say, "i've got you tattooed on my skin" by arachnistar, uploaded there a few days ago is a great read, and you should all give it a look.**


	9. But I'm a Cheerleader

_There's no way I could be...gay?_

* * *

She was sitting taking photographs of the squirrels living around the Blackwell dorms with Kate beside her sketching them when it happens.

"So are you and Chloe…dating?"

Max almost choked on her own spit.

"Wh-what?" she looked at Kate like she'd just grown an extra head, but the girl seemed unfazed by the reaction.

"I mean if you're worried about what I think, you really shouldn't be. The Bible preaches love, not hate, but my opinion doesn't really matter. Still, my abstinence campaign can still-"

"We're not!" Max almost shouted, throwing the hand that wasn't holding her camera up to stop the sandy-blonde before she could go on with that sentence. "Dating, that is. We're not dating. Chloe and I…we're just. I mean we've been best friends. We have been for years, I told you the story."

Kate shrugged, smirking lightly, like she knew more than Max. Max figured she probably did, but dreaded being told what exactly led Kate to the conclusion she and Chloe were…a thing.

"It's just, well, isn't that the person you're meant to date? Your best friend. And plus you're always together, I feel like one of these days I'm going to have to pry you from Chloe's cold, dead hands to hang out with you."

"Lots of people are like that," Max tried to brush it off, returning to her photography, "do you want to date your best friend?"

"Well no but I'm not…romantically interested in girls. Plus my best friend is my sister so that would be weird," she said, placing her sketchpad on the bench between the two of them and moving a hand to Max's shoulder, giving it a light squeeze.

"But…I'm not…gay?" Max protested, sounding uncertain. Kate just smiled warmly and squeezed her shoulder tighter.

"I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable or anything Max, if it's something you hadn't thought about yourself. I kind of just assumed, what with all those looks you two share…"

"Looks? It's not…that obvious is it?"

"Well, I'm not sure. I've always been good at reading body language," she said, removing her hand from Max's shoulder and moving to clasp Max's free hand between her own.

"I…I hadn't seen Chloe in person in so long. She'd grown up so much, but she was still my best friend, you know? And everything I liked in her when we were kids, all the stuff that made her fun, still there. Maybe a little harder to find, after…I left, her dad dying, but still there. So…I didn't want to say this out loud but yeah, okay, maybe I do have a tiny little crush on her," she sighed, feeling like a weight had been lifted off her chest from saying the words out loud, "but I'd never throw away over ten years of friendship over something like that."

Kate gave her a strange look then that Max couldn't quite figure out. Somewhere between…smug and pitying? That couldn't be right.

"Alright Max, I understand. But if you ever want to talk more about it, I'm here for you."

* * *

 **I'm not so happy with this one, but I don't really have a lot of time to revise it, and I don't want to leave you guys two days in a row without updating on time. Bad habits and all that.**

 **Kate Marsh is a precious cinnamon roll too good for this world and I will fight anyone who says otherwise.**

 **I'm not sure why Kate hasn't tried to kill herself. Maybe Chloe's confidence is rubbing off Max and making her stand up to more of Kate's tormentors. Or maybe it's just because it's my AU and I'm going to do what I want. I'll reply to comments tomorrow, as I'm about to fall asleep on my keyboard right now.**


	10. Only With You

_A world without Chloe? No thanks._

* * *

"So, say you had…one week left to live. What would you do with it?" Max questioned Chloe out-of-the-blue one day as she reclined in Chloe's desk chair while the other girl lay on her stomach across the bed, propped up on her elbows, flipping through a magazine. Chloe only gave her a skeptical look.

"What kind of profound hipster shit question is that Max?" she said, returning to her magazine. Max rolled her eyes and hopped off the chair, making her way to the bed, and plopped herself beside Chloe. She snatched the magazine away from her and held it just out of arm's reach. "Hey!" Chloe protested, making a noncommittal grab toward the captive mag, but Max brushed her hand away.

"Just answer the question," Max insisted, wagging the magazine teasingly. Chloe huffed, and folded her arms underneath her.

"I don't know? I mean, there's nothing I really regret not doing I guess. Maybe spend time with you and mom, even the step-dick, if I'm feeling sentimental. I'm really not sure, what's my budget?"

Max shrugged.

"Whatever you have now, but you could always borrow money, and it wouldn't matter, you'd be dead before you had to pay it back."

Chloe contemplated the new information, pursing her lips.

"I'd take out a loan, and get life assurance, and then I'd probably bring my mom on a vacation somewhere. We haven't even left the state since before dad…I'd bring you too, if you wanted to come. I might go see my uncle too. I haven't seen him in years but…apart from that? Not much…" she trailed off, allowing a silence to fall between them. Max wordlessly relinquished possession of the magazine, but Chloe only let it rest in the space in front of her.

"Okay, your turn," she piped up after a few minutes, breaking the quiet suddenly and startling Max, "if you could live forever, what would you do with it?"

"Like, 'Forever' forever?"

"Well, maybe until the world becomes uninhabitable, or something. Or gets over taken by flesh-eating zombies."

"Well…" Max mused leaning back, propping herself on her arms, "I'd learn a whole bunch of things, languages, or how to do all kinds of weird stuff. I'd probably try learn how to do a Rubik's cube. Seems like that might take a few centuries. And-oh but wait…" she stopped suddenly, realizing something, "what about you?"

"Me?"

"I'd…outlive you. You're not immortal, can I make you immortal too?"

Chloe smiled warmly, "nope," she said, popping the 'p' and Max frowned.

"Then I don't want to be immortal. Like, my parents are probably going to die before me, so even in this life I'm outliving them, but you? Those five years in Seattle were kind of awful. I don't think I could handle you dead."

Chloe looked at her, unable to speak. It was a weird look, fleeting, but it was gone before Max could place it.

"You'd give up immortality for me?"

"A world without Chloe Price is not a world I want to live in," she said, resulting in being tackle-hugged by the blue-haired girl in question.

A world without Chloe Price is hardly worth living in.

* * *

 **Sneaky dealing with canon themes is sneaky.**

 **Chloe lived for a week longer than she was meant to**

 **Max has all the time in the world at her fingertips.**

 **In response to a few people requesting it, I'm in the process of uploading this to ff.n, my ff.n username being manicmethod. Due to me, myself, royally fucking up, it's a slower process than it should be as a result of corrupt source files, and so it'll take another day or two for me to actually get it all up. Thank you for your feedback and your patience.**


	11. I Dare You

_I dare you to kiss me_

* * *

What would it be like, to kiss her?

Chloe finds herself wondering.

Would it be like kissing a relative, expected, reluctant?

Would it be like kissing a boy, slightly hard, fumbling hands, scrambling to find purchase?

Would it be like kissing any other girl, softer, yielding, but knowing?

Or would it be like the movies? With the fireworks bursting behind eyelids, as whatever pop song that is sure to be chart-topping the month following its release starts playing in the background. Magical. Right. Destined.

Chloe knew happily-ever-after rarely lasted.

Like her mother and father, or Rachel's parents, divorced.

But she and Max had promised each other forever. Not exactly in the same context as what Chloe contemplated now, but what was the difference between spending your life with a lover, and with your best friend.

Well, if you were lucky, nothing.

Chloe wanted to be lucky, but if poker nights with Frank and his buddies had taught her anything, it was that Chloe wasn't all that lucky.

Still, perhaps after all it had taken from her, the universe would see fit to grant her this one thing.

"I dare you to kiss me."

* * *

 **I tried something a little different. The next installment will be a direct continuation of this scene, don't worry. I'll explain more there.**


	12. I Double Dare You

_She really hoped it was okay._

* * *

"I dare you to kiss me."

Six little words, harmless by themselves, but together they sent Max's head reeling.

"What?"

Suddenly they were thirteen once more, before William's accident, back before everything had gone wrong. Back when the most terrifying prospect of truth-or-dare was having to either kiss someone, or confess that they never had. The moment, six years ago, flashed through Max's head. They had been close, inches away, Max could feel Chloe's breath against her lips. But Joyce had called them for dinner, and shattered the moment. They didn't speak of it again.

But now…

"I double dare you. Kiss me now."

She could tell, Chloe didn't expect her to do it. But. Did she want her to do it? She wouldn't have said it if she hadn't wanted it at least a little, right?

Chloe's face. Open, eyebrows raised, smiling softly. She wants this. Max hopes she wants this. Dear God if she's wrong...

She steps forward, cupping her jaw with one hand, the other bracing on her shoulder, and

She kisses her.

At least she thinks she does, but as their lips brush, Chloe almost jumps away.

Max hopes it's just out of surprise, not expecting Max to do it. She hopes, she really, really hopes it's not because she didn't want it.

Chloe says something about texting Warren, but Max isn't listening because the blood is rushing through her ears, pounding and swishing away, and she's probably blushing, but Chloe's not looking at her anymore, not directly.

It goes unmentioned between them the rest of the day, Max donned in Chloe's flannel, relishing in the sensation of being wrapped in it, because she's afraid to ever touch the other girl again, for fear of her flinching away again.

Her racing thoughts and anxieties are put to an end abruptly later as Chloe's blue head lays to rest on Max's shoulder, while she reads her latest Bradbury acquisition on the bench outside Blackwell's dorms.

She still wasn't sure of Chloe's thoughts on it, the former blonde had been quiet on the matter.

But if Chloe ever made any indication that she liked it, Max wouldn't mind doing it again.

* * *

 **I'll get around to replies soon guys I promise (the comments just kind of exploded there a few hours ago and I still have a backlog). I said I'd explain my reasons for this and the previous bit more in detail, but this is technically...26 minutes past my daily deadline, and I'm damn tired. I'll expand on it tomorrow. I'll upload this one to ff.n tomorrow guys but I really don't have time now, sorry for anyone who prefers that platform.**


	13. If You Like Someone

_You should ask them out, right?_

* * *

Max is loath to admit it, but she has been somewhat ignoring Warren for a while now.

Not that she's been doing it intentionally, she was just so caught up in photography classes, helping Kate deal with the video fallout, and helping Chloe maybe figure out what happened to Rachel, and if it's at all connected to Kate's apparent drugging.

Speaking of Chloe, there's that…stuff too. Those feelings, whatever they are exactly. Weather they're what Kate suspects they are, or something else entirely, maybe a sort of morbid curiosity, Max still hasn't quite figured out. Chloe still wasn't supplying any answers as to what exactly she thought and felt in the aftermath of their kind-of kiss, so that certainly wasn't helping.

But the long story short is, when Warren asked her if she was free that Friday night to go to the nearest drive-in for a movie marathon, she felt far too guilty to come up with any sort of excuse not to go. Besides, she was free that night, Chloe taking the evening shift at Two Whales, and Warren, even despite the unintentional cold shoulder she'd been giving him as of late, was still her friend.

So that's where she was, in Warren's car listening to the occasional girlish scream from other viewers as Sigourney Weaver made her way deeper into the depths of the Nostromo. Warren's own slightly-worn car was only in slightly better condition than Chloe's truck, Warren's didn't have that one burn stain on the carpet, or the slightly faded smell of hemp. That wasn't to say she didn't like Chloe's truck, it definitely had more character…

Max shook her head slightly, coming out of her reprieve. She was here, with Warren, watching a movie. She didn't have to think about Chloe. It would probably do her good to get a bit of space for Chloe, especially considering recent event.

Coming back into the moment, she suddenly became very aware of Warren's leaning slightly toward her in the driver's seat. She wasn't sure if he was doing it consciously or not, but at least he hadn't tried slinging his arm over the back of her seat yet. Despite that, she stiffened slightly. She liked Warren, he was a cool guys, a great friend, and leagues better than some of the guys at Blackwell. But even she wasn't so oblivious as to see that he liked her. Even if she hadn't Chloe, was glad to point it out to her on a regular basis.

Catching her hardening form out of the corner of his eye, Warren turned and look at her, concerned.

"You alright, Max?"

"Yeah I'm good…I just, have a lot on my mind. Sorry man, I know how hard it was to get these tickets…"

"Hey don't worry about it. I've seen these movies a bunch of times anyway, you wanna head back to Blackwell?"

"No, no not that, I just…you know Brooke likes you?"

He looked a little shell-shocked at the sudden change of topic, and his mouth flopped open and shut a couple of times as he tried to come up with a response.

"I…I'd heard it from Daniel, and I think Kate mentioned it too-"

"You should ask her out. She's always giving me these really passive-aggressive looks and comments when she talks about you."

"I…okay? You feeling alright Super-Max?"

She shrugged, not speaking for a moment as she thought.

"It's kind of an awful sensation not knowing if the person you like likes you back, right? If you like her, you should ask her out."

He nodded his head slightly and gave her a peculiar look, frowning slightly, deep in thought. After a moment he smiled in understanding.

"I think I will. Thanks, Max. You know, you should really try taking your own advice once in a while."

* * *

 **First of all, I did promise an explanation to the last chapters and here it is: I wanted to tease you.**

 **There's more to it than that but it's hardly important.**

 **Anyway I remember someone said maybe have Chloe get jealous of Warren and well... this isn't quite it. I really like Warren you know, he's not super pushy or expectant. He's not like, "so Max, I helped you out with stuff, you have to go on a date with me now" and he reminds me a lot of one of my own guy friends. So I don't really want him at the end of Chloe's...anger...stick? Plus I think the somewhat passive-aggressive remarks Chloe makes about Warren IS her showing her jealousy, so there's that.**

 **If you didn't know, they're watching a marathon of the Alien movies (Prometheus included)**


	14. Meaningless

_It was only a dare._

* * *

Chloe's snooping around Max's room.

It wasn't as though she'd woken up that day intending to do so, things just sort of progressed to that point.

She hadn't seen Max in almost a week because the other girl had been swamped in school work for the pre-Halloween assignment that she'd be getting graded on, and so Chloe had thought to surprise her with Two Whales coffee the day she was off early.

And Max wasn't here.

Chances were she was out taking photographs, as there's only so many words you can study about a visual art you're supposed to be creating, so it made sense that Max wasn't locked in her room like some hermit. So Chloe had resolved to wait for Max figuring she'd be back within a few minutes.

A few minutes later the coffee was gone lukewarm, and Chloe had to drink it.

A few minutes later it was an hour.

Then two.

(She dozed off for a bit on Max's bed, but jolted awake after she heard a bang from outside. It turned out just to be Victoria having some rich girl travesty and slamming her door.)

About halfway to the third hour she groaned loudly, hoping maybe Max would hear it wherever the hell she was.

No luck.

Finally deciding to send Max a text to tell her to hurry up, something caught the corner of her eye. On Max's bedside locker, seemingly hidden under a stack of science fiction novels, the white corner of a Polaroid peeked out. Curious, Chloe braced one hand against the pile of books and slid the photograph out of its hiding place. It was the selfie Chloe had photobombed the morning after Max had stayed over, getting Chloe to help her grind her study notes for her test that week. The photo Max took just a few minutes before…

Chloe felt the heat rush to her face, and hurried to return the photo to its rightful position.

She had messed up that morning.

Really, she'd been more shocked than anything. She wanted to kiss Max, she did. She still hadn't quite sorted out her feelings for the other girl, but she knew that much. But even when they were kids, Max had always been the one to choose "truth" in truth-or-dare, and Chloe, honest-to-god, never expected Max to actually accept any dare Chloe may have set for her, let alone one that involved kissing Chloe.

But in the end, it was only a dare, and Max had grown up quite a bit in Seattle. Who was to say she didn't go around accepting dares to kiss people all the time?

So Chloe hadn't broached the topic after that, attempting to alleviate the mood by taking (another) dig at Warren.

And she had definitely imagined that slightly crestfallen expression on Max's face.

* * *

 **This concludes the sort-of mini trilogy surrounding the dare. Nobody replied in relation to those other two parts, so I worried nobody was quite satisfied and decided to show what Chloe thought of it all. Plus, I know there's more chapters focusing on Max, but that's because I can write Max without Chloe, because she had more characters she can interact with, Chloe's a bit harder to do on her own.**

 **Feedback is always appreciated, and we've almost got 2000 hits which is more than I ever really thought we'd get, so that's pretty rad.**


	15. It's Just Entering

_They can't arrest me for that_

* * *

Chloe was still sure there was something off about that Jefferson guy.

He was too cool, too chill, and too down-to-Earth for her liking.

Max wouldn't hear about it. She just put it down to his teaching style, how, first and foremost, he was trained as an artist, not a teacher, and so he taught from his own experience, rather than strict training. She'd learned a lot from him, and although she did get some weird feeling or another, she'd usually ignore it.

But Chloe wouldn't. Because speaking of learning things, Chloe's favourite step-dick had taught her something too. How to be completely paranoid and suspicious of everything that moved.

So leading off from her "look-at-Max's-possibly-private-photographs" session the day before, Chloe decided to slip into Jefferson's class room the next evening after school and have another snoop around personal affects. She'd rooted through the drawers in his classroom, but as she'd suspected from a potential criminal mastermind, nothing.

She'd been hoping though. After Max had told her about the rumors of Jefferson sleeping with Rachel, she'd been wondering, and the photography teacher had immediately turned up to a 10 on her own patented "creepiness" scale.

Abandoning her quest, she was about to turn to leave when she heard someone at the door. Cursing under her breath, she rushed to duck under the teacher's desk as the person stepped into the room.

Tensed, and internally praying they wouldn't catch her, Chloe hugged her knees tighter to her chest and tried to slow her breathing. She couldn't see much out the bottom of the desk, but as the person moved closer, she was able to get a glimpse of their shoes.

Wait…

"Max?"

The girl in question went rigid before recognizing the voice.

"Chloe?"

Clambering out from under the desk, Chloe straightened up to meet a rather confused-looking Max's gaze.

"Hey Max…what're you doing here?"

"…what am I doing here? I left my text book here…what are you doing here?"

"I came to get your textbook too."

"Uh-huh…"

Their exchange tapered off, Chloe feeling somewhat guilty about going behind Max's back to scope out Jefferson.

The silence was awkward, made more so by the fact that, Chloe realized, this was the first time they'd really been alone together since the dare.

As if reading her thoughts, Max spoke up again.

"Chloe, you've been acting really weird since the other day. You've been basically avoiding me, and, no, don't say you're not, I called Joyce and she said you've been specifically asking for those extra shifts. What's up? I mean, I didn't think I was that bad of a kisser-"

"No, Max, it wasn't that. Well, it wasn't you but…"

"But?"

"I…kind of, I think I might li-"

She was cut off by a bang outside the classroom door, and both girls immediately froze.

"You should get your book Max. I need to get home."

"But what were you-"

"Grab your book Super Max. I'll drop you to Blackwell."

Max sighed in resignation, moving to grab the book from where she'd left it earlier.

As they made their way out of the school, Chloe remained silent, blood pounding in her ears.

She wasn't going to potentially ruin years of friendship over a stupid dare.

No way.

* * *

 **Okay so, even with the third installment, that mini-trilogy was less than warmly received. I'm going to address any concerns here.**

 **But first of all, we're more or less halfway through the series ^.^...Really guys, I just want to take a moment to thank you all hugely for your support so far. While I think I may have kept going either way, seeing the largely positive response has made me want to put 110% effort into writing these. So thank you all so much.**

 **Now, for the kiss. A few people have reviewed or pm'd me about it dragging, or angst, and while neither of those were ever my intention, I can see in retrospect why some of you may feel that way. This collection was started partly so I could work on my pacing, to see how much I could tease and draw something out, without dragging. And I seem to have shot over that limit a teensy bit. The feedback has made me reconsider and shuffle around a few key moments and details of the story ahead. I can't please everybody, I know that, but given that so many of you went from "yay! awesome" to "okay! meh" once the second part of the trilogy was released, I can only assume that was the cause of it.**

 **And so, this chapter here serves a couple of purposes, one, to set Jefferson up, and two, to set up for something else that will arrive within the next chapter or two.**

 **A special thank you to GrumpyCat42. Apart from constantly reviewing and giving feedback, you were not afraid to tell me EXACTLY what you did not like about the last segment. Hopefully I can get us back on course in a direction you and others don't fin quite as angsty.**

 **(Should I add angst as a tag?)**


	16. G Major

_It is one way to live._

* * *

Max had been stewing over the conversation she'd had with Chloe the other day in the classroom, and her conversation with Warren the Friday before.

"Maybe you should take your own advice."

 _'Maybe I should,_ ' she thought, rolling over onto her stomach. She'd been spread on her back across her bed, glaring holes into the ceiling, but now she reached of her phone.

 **To: Chloe**

 _We need to talk._

The message was seen almost immediately, but there was a slight delay in Chloe's response.

 **From: Chloe**

 _Uh. Sure thing Max Attack. You free now?_

 **To: Chloe**

 _Yes._

…

 **From: Chloe**

Alright. On my way.

Max stared at the time on her phone. Chloe would be at Blackwell within 20 minutes, assuming she was at home. Any longer and she'd probably spend some time debating if she should come over at all. It wouldn't surprise Max. Chloe had never been the kind to like any sort of confrontation, or emotion. She'd always been the kind to let it all build up and spill over like a dam, drenching and drowning anything and anyone in its path. Like a storm.

30 minutes passed. No Chloe. Sighing, Max got off the bed and stomped over to the door, flinging it open. There was Chloe, one hand gripping the middle of the opposite arm, which was ramrod straight and holding Chloe's phone in a vice grip. She'd been staring at it until Max opened the door, and her head snapped up.

"Uh, hey Max-"

"How long were you standing there?"

"Uhm…"

"Chloe."

"Just a few minutes," she admitted, stepping into the room when Max stood aside and closed the door behind her. Instead of flopping onto the bed or sofa as she normally would, she walked stiffly to the centre of the room and stood with her back to Max, attention diverted out the window, or possibly toward Max's poor neglected plant. "So," she sighed, still not turning to face Max, "what did you want to talk about?"

Max scowled, crossing the room to stand in front of Chloe. Although she was slightly shorter than the blue-haired girl, Max was able to intercept Chloe's line of sight, directed slightly downwards, and forcing Chloe to look at her.

"You know exactly what I want to talk about," she said, somewhat accusingly.

Chloe's jaw tightened and she frowned at Max's tone.

"No actually Max, I don't. It's not like I can read minds or shit."

"Don't give me that crap Chlo, you know exactly what I'm talking about," she turned sharply on her heels, fuming as she made her way over to the window to throw it open. It was too damn warm. "You've definitely been avoiding me for like the past week and a half, and don't you deny it Chloe Price, I know you too well."

"I-what gives me away?" She asked, voice softening at Max's obvious concern. The shorter only scoffed and crossed her arms.

"You avoid eye contact. You tilt your head a bit too."

There was a beat of silence as the air calmed down and Max stepped a little closer to Chloe's space.

"You do know me too well, I guess. Max, I- you're my best friend, and you will be, forever. Five years apart proved that. And that friendship…it's more important to me than anything. But I'm scared."

"Of what, Chloe?" Max said, softly, now meeting Chloe's eyes without having to force it. Chloe sighed, shakily, and swallowed.

"Scared of…look, I had a crush on you, before you left. I didn't act on it because I was a scared little pussy. I figured five years would have made it go away but…"

"I guess absence does make the heart grow fonder."

"Yeah," she exhaled-laughed nervously, "so…you know. Now what?"

"Well that depends."

"Depends on what?"

Max stepped in once more, close enough to count the individual lashes of Chloe's eyes if she tried hard enough. Close enough to hear the soft breaths, in, out, definitive proof that the girl in front of her was alive, awake, and, at that moment, incredibly vulnerable. Max smiled softly, eyes briefly flicking to Chloe's lips before looking back into her eyes, the blue that mirrored Max's own.

"Truth or dare?"

A ghost of a smile flickered across Chloe's face.

"Dare."

"I dare you to kiss me."

This time, there was no hesitation, no jumping away in surprise as Max's hands drifted up to cup Chloe's jaw, and Chloe's own arms reached up to hold Max closer. Though it lasted significantly longer than the first, Max noted there were no fireworks like the movies. It was more like coming up from air after being submerged in water, downing a drink after a long run, hopping into a warm taxi after being out on a freezing night. It felt relieving, though Max wasn't sure if that was because it had taken so painfully long to get to that point, or if every kiss with Chloe would be like this. The mix of coffee beans, nicotine, and whatever flavour stick of gum Chloe had chewed on the way over to solve her coffee-breath.

They didn't let go of each other as their lips parted. Instead, Chloe leaned her forehead onto Max's closing her eyes.

"…Isn't this the part where you make some dig at Warren?" Max mumbled and Chloe groaned.

"Max for _once_ in your life could you try not being a total smartass and just enjoy this."

"I figured my smart-assery was one of the reasons you liked me so much."

"There's a time and a place," she said, before closing the space between them again, effectively cutting Max off from whatever quip she was about to say next.

Max didn't mind it one bit.

* * *

 **Welp, there it is. At first, I hadn't intended on having the BIG kiss at this stage, but it felt like a better progression than having them just constantly dance around each other. Plus I still have a lot more to do in this fic, so I figured I should get a move on.**

 **So there seems to have been a little miscommunication involving the trilogy. Choice of words to and from myself got a little...lost in translation, and I had thought the reaction to the trilogy had been worse than it actually was, while you guys seem to have thought I'd taken it a lot more to hear than I actually had. Guess that sort of thing can happen over the internet very easily, but the explosion of comments and support in response to the last chapter was VERY encouraging and appreciated.**

 **The chapter title refers to the song "Lua" by Bright Eyes, one of my favourite songs that's also on the LiS soundtrack (the song is in the key of G major...or e minor, though using a minor key for the title of this hopefully uplifting chapter seemed inappropriate). It's the song that plays in Chloe's bedroom before the episode 3 kiss, and there's one more sneaky reference to the song hidden in the text. Personally, I don't know about you guys, I consider it to be "their" song.**


	17. Ditching the Closet

_Kate knows._

* * *

Being with Chloe was like taking hit after hit of some stimulating drug. It was exciting, and new, but at the same time had a prevailing sense of familiarity about it. Nothing changed, apart from the kissing, which Max still couldn't believe was an actual thing she could do, whenever she wanted, how she wanted. They still hung out until the wee hours of the morning, listening to whatever slightly obscure music Chloe had discovered, or flicking through Max's photographs to try to compile her portfolio. One or two evenings were spent scrutinising Jefferson, but Max was still reluctant to put any credit into Chloe's theories without any solid evidence.

They hadn't told anyone yet, afraid Joyce may forbid future sleepovers. But Max had this elated feeling in her chest, like a buzzing, and any time she saw Kate she'd almost blurt it out, jittery and excited.

Kate, however, was still dealing with the bullying from the video occasionally, in spite of the fact that a larger part of Blackwell's student body had found a new flavour-of-the-month video to make fun of and spread on social media. Victoria, for one, could not seem to let it go, and was keen to remind anyone within earshot of both herself a Kate exactly what she thought of Kate. Because of this, Max was almost afraid to tell Kate, for fear it might give her some awful skewed sense of perspective on life.

But of course Kate knew. Kate was good like that.

"You seem really happy lately Max. Something good happen?" She asked Max one day. It was the first day in almost a week that Max wasn't spending with Chloe or photographs, or Chloe and photographs, it was just Kate, tea, and the warmth shining through the window of Kate's room. Max was on the sofa, and Kate at her desk. Kate voiced the question in a way that told Max she already knew exactly what happened.

Max swallowed the mouthful of tea she had and smiled sheepishly.

"Nothing gets past you, does it? I'm pretty sure you know already," she teased.

"Well yes, but it's better to hear it from you."

"Alright," Max shrugged, taking another sip of tea before confessing, "Chloe and I finally got together."

Kate was positively beaming. It was nice to see it after so long.

"I'm really happy for you guys, really Max. It must be nice, dating your best friend."

Max nodded absently, smiling softly.

"Yeah, it's pretty awesome."

They lapsed into a comfortable silence then, both content to finish their tea before it got cold. Finally, once Max was finished and had set her cup aside, Kate looked up at her mischievously.

"So I'll get to be one of your bridesmaids, yes?"

* * *

 **I love Kate so many.**

 **In response to DeadLazy: The answer is...yes AND no. Yes, I have taken a conscious decision to make Max slightly more courageous/confident than canon Max. My own headcanon about Max is that she is pretty outgoing, but when we see her in-game, she's only been at Blackwell a month, and we all know how hard it is making friends in a new place, so canon Max has had that obstacle to deal with, whereas "snapshots-verse" Max always had Chloe as a pillar of support. However, I also think Max is a pretty strong-willed person as it is, how she can totally take the fall in episode one for Chloe's weed, and stands up for Kate to David...etc. Canon Max can fight for what's important to her. Some of you may disagree with me and that's fine, this is just how I read Max.**

 **Also Max will ESPECIALLY take no shit from Chloe.**

 **Thanks as always everyone, and I hope you enjoyed. See you tomorrow!**


	18. Little Lights

_Sure we might lose some puzzle pieces, but the stars are always there._

* * *

It's now Halloween night, and Chloe is antsy.

While she's still convinced that Jefferson has _something_ to do with the whole thing, both she and Max agree that there's something going on with the Vortex club, and if the rumors to do with "Prisscott" selling drugs are to be believed, he's their prime suspect.

So that's how one slightly grumpy and disheveled looking punk ended up spending her Halloween night among a crowd of rowdy teens, grip tight around the red solo cup in her hand. She only sipped at its contents, weary, even though she'd gotten it herself, afraid of spiking. She stood watch over Max, who mingled somewhat awkwardly with the rest of the party-goers.

After a while, it became apparent that Max was totally hopeless at pretending to be drunk (Max too was afraid of the punch, thought Chloe had tried to reason that it was unlikely the entire bowl be spiked), and so Chloe decided an intervention was required.

"What're you doing?" Max turned glaring accusingly, until she saw it was Chloe who had placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Relax, Maxi-pad, I'm dancing with my girlfriend," the former blonde smiled and started swaying to the music, getting into the rhythm.

"Chloe, we both suck at dancing."

"Well yeah, we suck but," she gestured with a tilt of her head around an area of the room, "they _hella_ suck at dancing. They're just too drunk to care. So c'mon, nobody will remember by morning how dumb we all look. Besides, don't you wanna help Kate?" she said, pressing her forehead down onto Max's so the other girl could hear her without Chloe having to scream her throat raw to be heard over the din. She felt Max nod slightly against her own head.

They go to the VIP area to try and poke around, but no dice. There's no way in. One attempt to go around the back almost ends with a speaker falling into the pool and possibly electrocuting anyone in it, but Chloe managed to steady it at the last second. The wire connected to it is still pulled out, and the music is briefly interrupted. Max and Chloe are promptly removed from the party, and they're left with nothing to do except stand around.

Chloe suggests going to Nathan's room, but Max shuts the idea down. It's too late to try sneaking into the boy's dorms now, security is increased after 10, and besides, what if Nathan comes back with another Kate, another victim? The aforementioned girl had been conscious long enough to notice she was in a room, and so all three of them had assumed it was just Nathan's room. But the more she pondered it, the less solid that idea seemed. After all, how had they gotten Kate into the boys' dorms? There were doormen there during the day who forbid members of the opposite sex to enter the other's dorm any time after 9, and with the added security from 10, Nathan couldn't have snuck her in.

She voiced these concerns to Max, who agreed with her.

"Maybe there's someone else in on it. Someone older, with more sway-"

"Like Mark Creeperson."

"Chloe we talked about this-"

"Yeah yeah Max, I know he's like your hero and all, but that guys seriously gives me the creeps."

"Well David gives me the creeps, but you don't see me accusing him of drugging Kate," Max sighed in exasperation, dropping to the curb and rubbing a hand over her eyes. He hands came back smudged, and she cursed silently as she belatedly remembered having put on make-up for once in an attempt to blend into the partying crowd more. That had worked so well.

Seeing the younger girl's fatigue, Chloe's features soften from the hardened expression it had taken when she thought another fight with Max was imminent. But she scolded herself internally for that, Max wouldn't start a fight with her for no reason. The time without her dad and with David had made her quick to take a defensive stance. But Max wasn't David. Max wasn't William, either, Max had come back. She lowered herself to the pavement beside Max, and lay an arm across her shoulders, pulling her into her side as Max curled in on herself.

"I'm exhausted Chloe. I want to help Kate, I really do, but I feel like I'm looking at a jigsaw puzzle of a big group of people, but the pieces that make up their faces and other features are missing, and I'm trying to fill in the gaps with like, bits from a totally different puzzle, you know?"

Chloe nodded, understanding completely.

"I kind of felt like that when my dad left. Then you left, I mean we were, are, still best friends, but it wasn't the same as actually having you here with me. Then Rachel disappeared. I was trying to figure out why people kept leaving. That's the real reason I want to find out what happened to Rachel. I mean yeah I hope she's okay, but even if she's not, I guess I just need…"

"Closure?"

"That's it," she said, pressing a grateful kiss to the side of Max's head, "We'll get this, you know that right? Because you're Max-fucking-Caulfield, and I'm Chloe-fucking-Price," she huffed, glaring up at the sky and then noting with delight, "Hey the stars are out tonight."

Max looked at her, incredulously, with the sudden topic change. But then her eyes flicked to the sky and the back to Chloe, who was still staring into space, eyebrows furrowed like they always were when she was trying to remember something. Probably the constellations. Max smiled warmly at her, but she was still deep in thought.

"Beautiful," Max said, just before her eyes were drawn back up to the stars.

* * *

 **I almost wasn't going to write this. I had my last Christmas exam today, and I was exhausted and tapped out, and also doing a little post-exam drinking (I'm Irish did you expect otherwise?). But I knuckled down and had no idea what I was writing. I might've forgotten in the morning. But I have to get this to you guys. I feel like with your continued support I kind of owe it to you to make good on my promise to deliver a chapter a day so here we go. I'm sorry if any of this is totally incoherent but as I've said, I'm a tad drunk. Feel free to point out spelling mistakes and such, I'll correct them in the morning. I'm also too damn tired to go posting and copy-pasting chapter notes to ff.n, so I'll upload this there tomorrow too.**


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